Historic Inequities in Disaster Losses: Identifying Disaster-Prone Places

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Using counties as the unit of analysis, this project examines the spatial and temporal patterning of disaster events and losses in the United States for the past fifty years. The primary purpose is to assess whether these losses are equally distributed over space and by social group to see if some regions and social groups are more affected than others. Three broad research questions are posed: (1) What are the spatial and temporal variations in hazard events and losses over time? Are some places more disaster-prone than others? Is this due to a singular event with large direct losses or is it more a function of smaller, more frequent events whose cumulative losses add to larger sums? (2) Are there differences in the broad demographic characteristics of disaster-prone versus non disaster-prone places? Are disaster-prone places more likely to have low income and minority populations or moderate/high income mostly white residents? (3) Does the impact of losses differ from place to place, if so, where are the burdens the greatest and why? What socio-historical processes (e.g., demographic shifts, in-migration, urbanization) can help to explain the observed pattern of inequities?